FLORIDA — New York-based JetBlue Airways made a surprise and unsolicited bid for Florida-based low cost airline Spirit on Tuesday.
JetBlue is offering a cash deal worth $3.6 billion, or $33 per share.
In a statement, JetBlue officials said that combining with Spirit would lead to lower fares by creating "the most compelling national low-fare challenger" to the nation's four biggest airlines: American, Delta, United, and Southwest.
Spirit said its board will evaluate the offer and decide what’s best for shareholders.
JetBlue's bid comes just months after low-cost airline Frontier announced a bid to merge with Spirit for $2.9 billion, saying "that creating the nation’s fifth-biggest airline would save consumers $1 billion a year."
All three airlines have a major presence in Central Florida.
While Orlando is a focus city for Frontier, Orlando International Airport serves as an operations hub for Spirit and JetBlue. JetBlue also has a training center and plans to be the primary airline operating out of MCO's new Terminal C when it opens this Summer.
Any deal could have a big impact on flight offerings and Central Florida airline workers.
Southwest is currently the largest airline at Orlando International Airport, in terms of departing flight seat capacity.
Frontier and Spirit have the most scheduled departing flights.
Airline | Departing Routes | Departing Seat Capacity
- JetBlue | 22 | 1,460,218
- Frontier | 78 | 1,969,260
- Spirit | 55 | 2,539,279
- Southwest | 51 | 2,923,251
While any deal would come with expectations of schedule changes, a Spirit-Frontier deal would give the joint airline an immediate 133 departing routes, and 4.5 million seats for departing flights.
A Spirit-JetBlue joint airline would produce 77 departing routes, and 3.9 million seats for departing flights.